A Knight who Eternally Regresses - Chapter 516

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

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A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 516: The Giant Who Sells Goods

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Back when war news used to turn the city into a ghost town, Krais would grumble about it constantly.

"Why is everything so hard to come by around here?"

For all his complaining, he always managed to turn a profit. When goods dried up, prices climbed. That was just how things worked.

Compared to those days, this was a completely different city.

More shops had opened, and along one side, merchants had gathered with their wares spread out on mats. The space was divided into sections, with soldiers posted at intervals on watch duty.

He even spotted a familiar Frog. What was the name again?

"Not looking for a fight."

A Frog with a vivid scar across his face showed pale palms as he spoke.

Enkrid dug through his memory and pulled out the name.

"Maelrun?"

"Yeah, that's right."

He had apparently joined Gielpin's guild under Krais. City life seemed to suit him well, his cheeks were smooth and gleaming, his body perfectly at ease.

A healthy Frog had gleaming cheeks, or so Ruagarne had once said, back when the dry climate had left her own cheeks parched.

"Moving on."

Enkrid passed Maelrun and walked further in. Among the humans he could spot the occasional Beastfolk, elf, dwarf, or Frog.

Giants too, it seemed.

They were called Magic Beasts by those who viewed red-blooded races that way, but just as not all humans were alike, and not all elves were alike, not all Giants were alike either. Some of them pursued things other than fighting.

This one looked like that sort.

A Giant walked past with a bundle of black cloth rolled around something, thick enough to be mistaken for a club, slung over one shoulder. Their eyes met by chance, and those eyes were nothing like what you would expect from a Giant. They reminded Enkrid of the gentle, steady gaze of an ox he had seen out west.

"Good day."

A brief glance, then they passed each other. The Giant offered a greeting as he moved to his spot and sat down among the mat merchants.

A few of the nearby merchants looked like they had swallowed their nerves, though some remained perfectly calm.

"You're late."

One merchant greeted him like an old acquaintance. The man looked like a mercenary at first glance, but that was not unusual. Peddlers had to know how to handle themselves, so plenty of them were not so different from mercenaries in practice.

"Found something good," the Giant said.

The easy familiarity with the human merchant beside him made it clear this was not his first visit to the Border Guard. The soldiers on watch said nothing either, which settled it.

Curiosity pulled Enkrid closer. The Giant unrolled the black cloth he had been carrying on his shoulder. The cloth was his shop floor.

Inside it were bags large enough to swallow an ordinary human whole, something resembling a chair hewn from a log section, and a few other odds and ends.

A Giant peddler. Not exactly a common trade for that race.

"Here to browse?"

A deep voice, the kind that seemed to come from the bottom of a cave.

The Giant looked at Enkrid and asked. Enkrid stood there a moment, then nodded.

The Giant did not seem to know who he was. A few of the soldiers on patrol or watch might have recognized him, but no matter how well known someone was, a face alone was not enough in a crowd like this.

He might have stood out more with distinctive gear or some other obvious marker.

Black hair and blue eyes were a little unusual, sure, but with this many people pressing in, picking him out at a glance would have been difficult.

"You said you found something good."

Enkrid repeated the Giant's words from a moment ago. The Giant unknotted the strap at the end of a large leather pouch and began pulling things out.

A large stone, some uncut gemstone ore, and a few rolls of bundled leather. That was everything.

Which of these was the good thing?

Enkrid was a mercenary and a swordsman. He had some eye for goods, but nothing close to a merchant's. The man looked like a peddler who sourced raw materials and sold them as they were. Without weapons or armor in the mix, his judgment did not extend much further.

One roll of leather caught his eye in a way he could not quite explain.

It was not large by the Giant's scale, not by the standard of those hands either.

The outer surface was a dark brown, thick. The weight? It looked heavy just sitting there.

"You've got an eye for things."

The Giant said it without warmth, without a smile.

Not the type to hawk wares.

"Do I."

Enkrid shifted his gaze to the Giant and answered.

"You know the Black Leather Guild?"

The Giant asked in that booming voice.

Of course he did.

Wandering the continent, certain names reached you whether you sought them out or not. The Shepherds of the Wilderness. The Black Leather Guild. The Glacier Rangers. Groups like those.

Among them, the Black Leather Guild was known as the finest hunters on the continent.

"Sourced from them. Don't know what beast it came from, but it's tough, it's light, and."

The Giant held Enkrid's gaze as he spoke, then paused. The rolled leather was lifted between thumb and forefinger, and then the thought was finished.

"It's expensive."

The price did not matter to Enkrid. He held out his hand, and the Giant placed the roll of leather onto his palm.

He unrolled it to find well-tanned hide inside. Just as the Giant had said, it was remarkably light, not because of a Giant's strength making it seem that way. Not feather-light exactly, but far lighter than its appearance suggested.

No foul smell. Wrapped around the wrist, it looked wide enough to cover the forearm all the way to the top.

"Unusual."

"It's not something you come across easily."

"Neither are you."

"Does that matter?"

"You stand out."

The Giant gave no reaction. So what? Was he buying the thing or not?

That was all that mattered to a merchant.

"I'll take it."

He liked it. A rough picture of how to use it was already forming in his head.

Then he would take it. He was not short on Krona.

"Twelve gold coins."

A steep price. And oddly precise. Ten would have been ten, so what was twelve supposed to mean?

For a piece of leather barely long enough to wrap from the back of the hand to just below the elbow, that was very expensive.

If it were Audin's arm, it would probably only cover his fist.

"Fine."

Enkrid did not haggle. He saw no reason to. There was, though, a problem.

He patted his waist and reached inside his coat. Come to think of it, he had not brought any Krona.

- Do you go through life never hearing that you're a little lacking up top?

Aker hummed and buzzed, having caught on to the situation.

This sword was supposed to have its consciousness gradually scatter within a month of awakening, was it not?

Why had it been made to last a whole month?

Enkrid held that thought and kept searching his pockets. Of course no Krona turned up.

Not a single clink. As Enkrid patted himself down without producing anything, the Giant's eyes narrowed.

Is this bastard a thief?

With a sword on his hip, a robber, then?

A funny notion.

This was the Border Guard. Pickpockets had their wrists cut off here, and robberies were almost unheard of.

If you tried to pull something in a back alley, you ran into Gielpin's people. The standing garrison that watched over the days did not take sides for a few silver coins, meaning they did their jobs.

Getting there had involved no shortage of incidents, but that was the atmosphere now.

The Giant crossed his arms. Two soldiers on watch happened to be nearby.

Should he call them over?

The Giant considered it a moment, then gave the man a chance.

"No Krona, get lost."

"I'm actually friends with Leona."

Enkrid said it quietly. The truth. Twelve gold coins were nothing. He could have it here in no time.

That was exactly what he had been about to say, if not for the merchant who had shoved himself in from the side, cheeks fat with greed.

"I'll buy it. Seven and a half gold."

This bastard.

Enkrid felt a flicker of irritation. Could the man not see he was already in the middle of buying it?

He held back the impulse to let his Will bleed out, that would read as a threat, and simply stared at the man. The merchant stared back, then raised his chin.

"What?"

So what are you going to do about it?

The Border Guard was a paradise for merchants precisely because the security was so good. That made sense. It was a miserable place to make a living as a swindler, a robber, or a pickpocket.

Gielpin's guild, whose main trade was technically illegal, had stepped up on their own to act as guardians of the night. The standing garrison that covered the days did not take sides for a few silver coins. Meaning they did their work.

Of course, plenty had happened before things reached this point, but at any rate, this was how it stood now.

"I'll be back shortly. If you could just wait a moment."

Enkrid said it. It made him look pathetic, but there was nothing to be done.

"Look, if you don't have it, step aside. Some of us are busy."

The grumpy-cheeked merchant who had cut in talked over him.

Enkrid's hand twitched. The way this man spoke reminded him of Krais, except where Krais and his toad-like face made it tolerable, a man with cheeks stuffed full of spite and greed doing the same thing made his killing intent surge.

Looks are not everything, but they do something.

He swallowed the feeling. This was not worth getting angry over.

"And you're claiming to be friends with the head of the Rockfreed Trading Company? Ha. Then I'm General Enkrid's uncle."

Should he just kill this one? Would that be allowed? Did being a general give him license enough to kill someone like this?

The mood went cold and two nearby soldiers stepped closer. Neither of them knew Enkrid by face.

"If there's a dispute, we'll need to sort out who's at fault, which won't be good for either of you."

"Fair warning, the lord of the Border Guard doesn't take sides."

Fairness is cold.

That was the inscription above the Border Guard courthouse. A warning that getting that far was something best avoided.

This atmosphere, too, was something Krais had built.

Holding a trial took manpower, and Krais often had to oversee them personally. He could not let people suffer injustice, but if every petty quarrel went to the city's upper court, it stripped away a pile of Krona in taxes.

Better that only the truly wronged showed up.

That way, anyone trying to exploit the system with flimsy claims would be weeded out. And when someone genuinely wronged did appear, taxes were waived.

There had been no shortage of complaints and trouble at the start. But now it was an established rule, and one most merchants knew well.

Enkrid was not familiar with the details.

They'd take my side, though.

He was, after all, the person above that very lord in question.

But if he revealed that here ,

Would it damage my honor?

- Hey, if you're going to expose who you are here, you'd be better off biting down on me and jumping off a cliff.

Aker, the sword with its own ego, offered its timely counsel.

Enkrid resolved to throw the sword off a cliff rather than have it repaired.

It was already losing its edge, wearing down, turning into useless scrap metal.

- Stop thinking nonsense. Let me enjoy my remaining month.

Enkrid ignored the ego sword and looked at the Giant.

He tried to say it with his eyes. Trust. This is a look of trust.

"What?"

"Never mind."

The Giant's gaze shifted to the toad-faced merchant, and then his mouth opened.

"And I'm not selling to you either."

"What? Twelve gold for a scrap of leather like that is already highway robbery!"

The Giant's words set the merchant off. To Enkrid it looked like a performance, a trick to gain the upper hand in bargaining.

The Giant had not figured that out. Even so, a shake of the head.

"Not selling."

"Aren't you with Rockfreed?"

"So?"

"I'm Malton. I've been doing business with the Rockfreed Trading Company for years. This could become a problem later."

A threat now, was it?

The two soldiers seemed to judge that this was still within the bounds of bargaining and stepped back.

Enkrid just watched. His position was too ambiguous to step in. Honestly, if he got involved now, he would probably look like the robber.

He had no Krona, so the only other option would be force.

"None of my business."

The Giant did not bend.

"You bastard."

The merchant was genuinely fuming now, but made no move toward violence. The two border soldiers were still watching. And even without them, picking a fight with a Giant would only hurt him.

Besides, what could he do if the Giant refused to sell?

The toad-faced man with spite packed into every fold of his cheeks huffed a you'll regret this and cleared out.

"Is that all right?" Enkrid asked the Giant.

"Why wouldn't it be? I'm with Rockfreed, but what I buy and sell is my own business."

"I see."

"That's how it is. I sell good things at the price I set. That's my way of doing business."

The look of trust had failed, but Enkrid liked the leather. He liked the Giant too.

Especially those eyes, the way they lit up when talking about good things and speaking of a way of trade.

A Giant who went out sourcing goods and sold them here. Had that path been easy? Comfortable? Simple?

It had not.

And yet here the Giant merchant stood.

"Do you have a dream?" Enkrid asked.

"What's it to you?"

The Giant's manner did not change.

That, too, was entirely to his liking. Better go get that Krona quickly.

Where was Krais? No, Graham would do. He could collect from him.

He was just turning to leave when a familiar face appeared right behind him.

"Buying something?"

Someone who had been nowhere in sight since early morning, claiming to be busy.

"Black Flower."

Someone murmured. This time the robe did not fall open at the front, but the skirt she had on was slit at the side.

A stretch of white leg was on full display.

Several pairs of eyes snagged on it, men and women alike. That kind of leg had a pull that did not discriminate.

Quite a few women were staring too.

"Don't go pulling people's eyes out for looking," Enkrid said.

"Why would I pull out someone's eyes? Are you feeling unwell?"

Esther blinked as she answered.

She had done it before. That was all it was.

Enkrid decided to swallow the injustice and move on.

It felt like a day where things were simply going to happen to him.

"How much? I'll cover it."

The situation felt a little strange to Enkrid. Esther, who could have passed for a witch or a sage deep in some mountain, was handing over gold coins, and he was standing there watching.

She counted them out one by one and passed them over.

"A good trade."

Only then did the Giant smile. A smile at Esther, the leather handed over, and Esther passed it to Enkrid.

"Gift. I'm busy."

It had been a chance encounter. Esther was already moving to leave.

"Black Flower, my heart is yours!"

Then from somewhere, a man in finely pressed clothes spotted Esther and threw himself into a grand display of devotion.

He dropped to one knee right in front of her and thrust out a bouquet.

Esther looked at the man.

Enkrid made a quiet mental note to step in and protect the man's eyes if things went sideways.

And Esther said, "I'll think about it."

Then she walked off at a leisurely pace and was gone.